Courts Extend Second Amendment Protection to Switchblades and Body Armor as the Supreme Court Prepares for an AR-15 Showdown
A Fifth Circuit ruling and a New York federal judge both found these items count as 'arms.' Gun-rights groups say the reasoning could carry into the AR-15 case, Viramontes v. Cook County.
Two federal court rulings this week have encouraged gun-rights advocates ahead of a Supreme Court case on AR-15-style rifles, Fox News reports.
The rulings. On Wednesday, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a federal law restricting interstate commerce in switchblade knives violates the Second Amendment. The same day, a federal judge in the Western District of New York struck down New York's restrictions on personal body armor. Both courts found the items qualify as constitutionally protected "arms."
The test. Both decisions lean on two Supreme Court rulings: Heller (2008), which found an individual right to own firearms for lawful purposes such as self-defense, and Bruen, which asks whether the Second Amendment's text covers the item and, if it does, whether the government can point to a historical tradition of similar regulation. Fox says both courts answered the first question yes, then found the governments had not shown a matching historical tradition. In the New York case, the state argued body armor is a tactical accessory, not an arm. The judge disagreed, noting that Heller treats "arms" as covering both offensive weapons and defensive armor.
The case ahead. The Supreme Court is preparing to hear Viramontes v. Cook County, a challenge to a county assault-weapons ban. The Seventh Circuit upheld it, reasoning that AR-15-style rifles are comparable to machine guns and so fall outside protected arms. Dudley Brown, president of the National Association for Gun Rights, whose group filed a brief in the case, said a ruling against AR-15 bans could shape later challenges to limits on magazines, automatic knives, body armor and other defensive gear. Attorney George Lyon called the Seventh Circuit's comparison "totally wrong."
The wider argument. Justin Davis of the National Rifle Association said courts are weighing what counts as an arm in cases over suppressors, magazines, stun guns and pepper spray. He answered the claim that the amendment covers only muskets this way: "we don't apply the First Amendment only to newspapers, books or speech in public forums." In his words, "The world evolves, but the core fundamental rights never change."
Note for readers: the people quoted are gun-rights advocates, and Fox's report includes no voice from gun-control groups or the governments that lost these cases. Courts may also treat AR-15s differently from knives and armor. We read Fox's report, not the opinions.